Founder of Jefferson Airplane Marty Balin, 76

Singer Marty Balin of Jefferson Airplane has died at the age of 76.

Balin, a patron of the 1960s San Francisco Sound, both as founder and lead singer of Jefferson Airplane and co-owner of the club where the group and other Bay Area bands performed, died in Tampa, Florida, on the way to the hospital, spokesman Ryan Romenesko said.

The cause of death was not immediately available.

The dark-eyed, baby-faced Balin was an ex-folk musician who formed Jefferson Airplane in 1965 and within two years was at the heart of a nationwide wave that briefly rivalled The Beatles’ influence and even helped inspire their Sgt Pepper album.

Jefferson Airplane was the breakout act among such San Francisco-based artists as the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin, many of whom played early shows at the Matrix, a ballroom Balin helped run and for which Jefferson Airplane served as house band.

The San Francisco Sound was a psychedelic blend of blues, folk, rock and jazz, and the musical expression of the emerging hippie lifestyle.

Balin himself was known for his yearning tenor on the ballads Today and It’s No Secret, and on the political anthem Volunteers.

In the mid-1970s, when Jefferson Airplane regrouped as the more mainstream Jefferson Starship, Balin sang lead on such hits as Miracles, which he co-wrote, With Your Love and Count On Me.

He later had solo success with Hearts and Atlanta Lady.

Jefferson Airplane were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, but Balin would long have mixed feelings.

Pride in the band’s achievements was shadowed by its eventual break-up and by Balin’s acknowledged jealousy of Grace Slick, the other lead vocalist. Slick joined the group in 1966, soon before Jefferson Airplane recorded its landmark second album, Surrealistic Pillow.

A charismatic singer and performer, she displaced Balin as the perceived leader, on stage and on Jefferson Airplane’s best known songs, Somebody To Love and White Rabbit.

Born Martin Jerel Buchwald in Cincinnati, he ended up in the Bay Area as his father, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, tried to find work.

Balin was married twice, most recently to Susan Joy Finkelstein, and had three children.

Picture: AP. Marty Balin was the group’s original lead singer.